Tina Milas is the owner of Invitations of Elegance, a handmade invitation studio just outside of Philadelphia. A custom stationer with a natural eye for design and an emphasis on providing unparalleled customer service, Tina provides clients with beautiful hand tailored wedding invitation suites, and her undivided attention in doing so. As a testament to her exceptional design work and personal service, Invitations of Elegance has been given a Bride’s Choice Award by WeddingWire for two years running.

Tina Milas is a member of Twitter Wedding Inspiration Pals (TWIPS), a social media based community that encourages wedding professionals to connect with, learn from, and inspire one another – an effort to build a community of wedding industry professionals of the utmost quality.

You can read more about Invitations of Elegance and Tina Milas in her interview with LCI Paper Company below.

- – - – -

I’d like to begin by learning where your amazing design talent comes from! Please tell me about your background.

I have had a love for specialty paper, pens, and art supplies since a very young age. I took pride in creating home made cards for birthdays, thank you’s, and holiday wishes, and still do. I think I declared myself a stationery-holic by the time I was eighteen. With little schooling in actual graphic and typography design, I am a self-proclaimed stationery artisan.

My inspiration comes from each individual client that I work with. I take the time to get to know my clients through email, phone or video chat. When I learn what they are looking for and what kind of mood they are trying to evoke, I create inspiration boards with two to three completely different designs to start from. I surround myself with vintage patterns, bursts of color, and heirloom knickknacks throughout my home studio to help keep the creative juices flowing in my mind!

How did Invitations of Elegance get started, and how long have you been in business?

I actually just celebrated my fifth year in business this past January! Time sure does fly when you have fabulous clients to work with!

I started my business a little less than a year after my husband and I had married. We had planned our wedding in a little less than six weeks, and I was stuck when it came to our wedding invitations. I didn’t want an ordinary “out of a binder” invitation that hundreds, if not thousands of other brides and grooms had chosen for their invitations; so long story short, my husband and I created our entire wedding stationery ensemble. We received so many compliments on how beautiful everything was that I started to get requests from friends and family. From the word of mouth of family, friends, and friends of friends, I was quickly assured and supported by my husband that turning my hobby into a business was a great idea.

Looking through your website and portfolio of designs – both of which are incredibly impressive and visually appealing by the way – I get a very personal feel. Am I correct in assuming that this is the way in which Invitations of Elegance is run?

Thank you so very much for your kind compliment! That is exactly what I try to portray – that each and every client will receive a truly unique and personal experience in creating their couture wedding stationery ensemble. From the initial point of contact to the actual packaging of their order, I am the one person that they will be in contact with the entire time! Since Invitations of Elegance is a couture, handmade stationery studio that it is run entirely by myself, I take on only four clients a month. This allows me to give each couple my undivided attention, resulting in a stress free and personal experience.

I noticed you recently became an Envelopments dealer. Please tell me what makes you stand out from other Envelopments dealers.

Envelopments strives on allowing only the utmost capable and talented artisans available to be their dealers. So with that said, it is an amazing honor to be a hand picked dealer of the Envelopments branded network.

What sets me apart from other Envelopment designers and dealers are a few things: One, all of my designing, printing (including letterpress), cutting, and assembly is all done in my home studio. There is no third party involved so the client can be assured that I am the only one that will be handling everything.

Second, I offer three types of consultations – phone, email, and video chat – so the client is at liberty to choose how they would like to communicate.

Last, I offer two types of packages when the client is ready to order; either a complete package where I design, print, cut, and assemble everything for them; or our signature D.I.T. (do it together) package is available. This is where the client will still receive a professionally designed and printed product, but will be able to save a substantial amount – sometimes up to 50% off the complete package price – of money by doing all of the cutting and assembly themselves.

I noticed you were given a Bride’s Choice Award by WeddingWire for two years running. Please tell me about this and what it entails.

With more than 200,000 wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community throughout the US and Canada, the 2011 award recipients represent the top five percent in quality and service excellence within the wedding industry.

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Awards are distributed to winning wedding professionals across 20 service categories, and are based on the overall professional achievements throughout the previous year.

In your Story section, I also saw that you were a member of the TWIPS Community. What exactly is TWIPS, and how does one become involved?

The TWIPS (Twitter Wedding Inspiration Pals) is a community of wedding professionals that “promote, support, educate and inspire other members. This unique group’s goal is to be uplifting and helpful, while working towards a common goal to be the best professionals in the industry. Becoming a member means that you are committed to dedicating a small portion of your time each day to supporting other members in the community.”

To become a member in this fabulous community of wedding professionals you can visit The TWIPS Wire or email an executive for more information at TWIPSinfo@gmail.com.

As I mentioned, I first stumbled on your site when I saw your Retweet of LCI’s Pop-Tone paper video. Is this a line of paper you’ve used in your designs?

I have not tried the Pop-Tone line of paper as of yet, but I am excited to get my hands on some and try out some custom die cut celebration invitations with this brilliant line!

- – - – -

As we always enjoy chatting with designers, stationers, and all of those in the wedding industry, LCI Paper would like to extend a big thank you to Tina Milas for taking the time to discuss Invitations of Elegance and her custom wedding stationery with us.